April Fools Joke Misfires; Company Receives Offers to Buy Live Dinosaurs

(PRWEB) April 4, 2002

kingsnake.com, long known to be the portal for hobbyist and commercial

reptile breeders, received a shock when its annual April Fools prank

misfired, leading a number of individuals and consumers to believe

that they were actually offering live dinosaurs available for sale.

"I was completely floored when we began receiving actual order inquiries

for baby dinosaurs" said kingsnake.com's founder Jeff Barringer.

Known as the reptile industry hub and hosting the web sites of hundreds of

reptile and other animal breeders, strange inquiries for animals

are considered the norm, but dinosaurs?

kingsnake.com put up a "mock" breeders page on Monday, for a company

purported to be breeding and producing a number of different dinosaur

species, including Brontosaurus, Iguanadon, and the Velociraptor made

infamous in the Jurassic Park movies and books.

"In the past we have had people from private individuals to zoos, casinos,

and theme parks looking for all sorts of animals, including animals like

sloths and penguins. I had no idea how many people would actually believe

our April fools joke was real."

While most of the sites users got the joke, Barringer says that they

received almost twenty "real" inquiries from as far away as Hong Kong

wanting to purchase a range of the prehistoric animals.

"What was most shocking is that most of the emails were requests

for people wanting to purchase Velociraptors. You'd think people would

have learned a bit more from the movies. I would suspect they wouldn't

make good pets."

About OnlineHobbyist:

A privately held corporation, OnlineHobbyist.com, Inc. was formed in

September of 1999 based on the assets of the former kingsnake.com

publications. OnlineHobbyist is a builder of virtual communities based in the

Silicon Hills of Austin Texas and currently specializes in pet communities,

including kingsnake.com.

Contact: Jeff Barringer - jeffb@kingsnake.com

OnlineHobbyist.com, Inc.

508 East Howard Lane #25

Austin, Texas 78753

(512)990-1092